News Items...Sigh

A new leader on the gridiron in Eugene...Opaque city gov't brouhaha in L.O...A trial involving the deranged conduct of trusted school employees is turning stomachs in California.

Today's news...sigh.

In them is a common thread from which we can learn: We need to be sure the people to whom we grant power are held to high standards and we must not allow ourselves to be distracted from our oversight.

We are having to spend a lot of money to fix gov't services now when we could have just worked a little harder to choose ethical leaders (See: Yvonne Deckard, PPS consultant).

To improve our gov't services and, specifically to rebuild the flagging trust in school leadership, we need to stay focused not on the national ranking of our football program (top 10) but on the national ranking of our schools (bottom 10), .

Our political decision-making is unproductive because liberals, moderates, and conservatives are united only in the sense that they can't trust the people who are running our public programs anymore.

Going forward, we must be bolder in holding (highly-paid) public servants personally responsible. Our media representatives should use individuals' names and not cloak them in the anonymity of inanimate organizations or unions.

And please don't be afraid of PERS. Much of what is now happening is legal robbery designed by unsupervised bureaucrats and at least one lawyer* I know personally to be a dishonest scoundrel.

Transparency is honesty. Shine a light--before we discover We Are Penn State too.